Recombinase Polymerase Amplification (RPA) is a DNA amplification process that utilizes enzymes to match synthetic oligonucleotide primers to their complementary partners in duplex DNA. (Armes and Stemple, U.S. patent Appl. 60/358,563 filed Feb. 21, 2002). RPA depends upon components of the cellular DNA replication and repair machinery. The notion of employing some of this machinery for in vitro DNA amplification has existed for some time (Zarling et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,223,414), however the concept has not transformed to a working technology until recently as, despite a long history of research in the area of recombinase function involving principally the E. coli recA protein, in vitro conditions permitting sensitive amplification of DNA have only recently been determined (Piepenburg et al. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/931,916 filed Sep. 1, 2004, also Piepenburg et al., PlosBiology 2006).
RPA offers a number of advantages over traditional methods of DNA amplification. These advantages include the lack of a need for any initial thermal or chemical melting, the ability to operate at low constant temperatures without a need for absolute temperature control, as well as the observation that complete reactions (lacking target) can be stored in a dried condition. These characteristics demonstrate that RPA is a uniquely powerful tool for developing portable, accurate, and instrument-free nucleic acid detection tests.